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Noachic Polemics and the Date of 2 Enoch

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Noachic Polemics and the Date of 2 Enoch Chapter 7 Noachic Polemics and the Date of 2 Enoch This investigation of Noachic polemics in 2 Enoch has several objectives. First, it intends to further illustrate the polemical nature of 2 Enoch by showing that the text represents a complicated web of arguments involving the traditions of the elevated patriarchs and prophets. Second, it will demonstrate that, as with the Adamic and Mosaic counterparts, the purpose of these polemics is to enhance the figure of the seventh antediluvian patriarch and diminish the threat of competing mediatorial characters. Third, it will show that the Noachic developments can serve as decisive proof for the early date of the Slavonic apocalypse. The investigation will try to establish that Noachic polemical developments, which deal with the issues of sacrificial practices and priestly successions, cannot be dated later than 70 C.E. since they reflect a distinctive sacerdotal situation existing at the time when the Temple was still standing. It will be demonstrated that the Noachic polemics in 2 Enoch belong to the same stream of early Enochic testimonies to the priestly-Noah tradition as those reflected in the Genesis Apocryphon and the Epistle of Enoch, written before the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple. Before our study proceeds to a detailed analysis of the polemics in the Slavonic apocalypse, a brief introduction to the recent research into Noachic traditions is necessary. In recent years a growing number of publications have been devoted to the Noachic traditions.1 Even though the book of Noah ————— 1 On Noachic traditions, see: M. Bernstein, “Noah and the Flood at Qumran,” in: The Provo International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Technological Innovations, New Texts, and Reformulated Issues (eds. D. W. Parry and E. Ulrich; STDJ 30; Leiden: Brill, 1999) 199–231; D. Dimant, “Noah in Early Jewish Literature,” in: Biblical Figures Outside the Bible (eds. M. E. Stone and T. A. Bergren; Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1998) 123–50; F. García Martínez, Qumran and Apocalyptic (STDJ 9; Leiden: Brill, 1992) 24–44; idem, “Interpretation of the Flood in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” in: Interpretations of the Flood (eds. F. García Martínez and G. P. Luttikhuizen; TBN 1; Leiden: Brill, 1998) 86–108; Fletcher-Louis, All the Glory of Adam, 33ff.; R.V. Huggins, “Noah and the Giants: A Response to John C. Reeves,” JBL 114 (1995) 103–110; H. Kvanvig, Roots of Apocalyptic: The Mesopotamian Background of the Enoch Figure and the Son of Man (WMANT 61; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1988) 242–54; J. Lewis, A Study of the Interpretation of Noah and the Flood in Jewish and Christian Literature (Leiden: Brill, 1968); G. W. E. Nickelsburg, “Patriarchs Who Worry About Their Wives: A Haggadic Tendency in the Genesis Apocryphon,” in: Pseudepigraphic Noachic Polemics 305 is not listed in the ancient catalogues of the apocryphal books,2 writings attributed to Noah are mentioned in such early materials as the Book of Jubilees (Jub 10:133 and Jub 21:104), the Genesis Apocryphon from Qumran, and the Greek fragment of the Levi document from Mount Athos.5 In addition to the titles of the lost book of Noah, several fragmentary materials associated with the early Noachic traditions have survived. Most researchers agree that some parts of the lost book of Noah “have been incorporated into 1 Enoch and Jubilees and that some manuscripts of Qumran6 preserve some traces of it.”7 A large bulk of the surviving Noachic fragments is associated with the Enochic materials. This association points to an apparent unity behind the ————— Perspectives: The Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls (eds. E. Chazon and M. E. Stone; STDJ 31; Leiden: Brill, 1999) 137–158; J. Reeves, “Utnapishtim in the Book of Giants?” JBL 12 (1993) 110–15; J. M. Scott, “Geographic Aspects of Noachic Materials in the Scrolls of Qumran,” in: The Scrolls and the Scriptures: Qumran Fifty Years After (eds. S. E. Porter and C. E. Evans; JSPSup 26; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997) 368–81; R. C. Steiner, “The Heading of the Book of the Words of Noah on a Fragment of the Genesis Apocryphon: New Light on a ‘Lost’ Work,” DSD 2 (1995) 66–71; M. Stone, “The Axis of History at Qumran,” in: Pseudepigraphic Perspectives: The Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls (eds. E. Chazon and M. E. Stone; STDJ 31; Leiden: Brill, 1999) 133–49; M. Stone, “Noah, Books of,” in: Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter, 1971) 12.1198; J. VanderKam, “The Righteousness of Noah,” in: Ideal Figures in Ancient Judaism: Profiles and Paradigms (eds. J. J. Collins and G. W. E. Nickelsburg; SBLSCS 12; Chico: Scholars Press, 1980) 13–32; J. VanderKam, “The Birth of Noah,” in: Intertestamental Essays in Honor of Józef Tadeusz Milik (ed. Z. J. Kapera; Qumranica Mogilanensia 6; Krakow: The Enigma Press, 1992) 213–31; Cana Werman, “Qumran and the Book of Noah,” in: Pseudepigraphic Perspectives: The Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls (eds. E. Chazon and M. E. Stone; STDJ 31; Leiden: Brill, 1999) 171–81. 2 García Martínez, Qumran and Apocalyptic, 24. 3 “Noah wrote down in a book everything (just) as we had taught him regarding all the kinds of medicine...” VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees, 2.60. 4 “...because this is the way I found (it) written in the book of my ancestors, in the words of Enoch and the words of Noah.” VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees, 2.123. 5 “For thus my father Abraham commanded me for thus he found in the writing of the book of Noah concerning the blood” §57. J. C. Greenfield and M. Stone, “The Aramaic and Greek Fragments of a Levi Document,” in The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs (ed. H. W. Hollander and M. de Jonge; SVTP 5; Leiden: Brill, 1985) 465. Among other important late allusions to Noah’s writings, the Chronography of Syncellus and the Book of Asaph the Physician should be mentioned. See García Martínez, Qumran and Apocalyptic, 25 and 38. 6 Florentino García Martínez presented an in-depth reconstruction of the work. According to García Martínez, the following Qumran materials can be related to the Book of Noah: 1QapGen 1–17, 1Q19; 1Q20; 4Q534, and 6Q8. See: García Martínez, Qumran and Apocalyptic, 43–4. 7 García Martínez, Qumran and Apocalyptic, 26. 306 Polemical Developments Enoch-Noah axis. In some pseudepigraphic texts, the words of Noah often follow closely the words of Enoch. Already in the earliest Enochic materials, one can see this link between Noachic and Enochic traditions. Helge Kvanvig points out that in the Noachic traditions Noah and Enoch often appear in the same roles.8 In some Enochic writings, however, this unity of Enoch and Noah appears for some reason to be broken. These writings ignore the Enoch- Noah axis and reveal fierce theological polemics against Noah and the traditions associated with his name. One of the pseudepigraphic texts which attests to such an uncommon critical stand against Noah is the Slavonic apocalypse.9 The study now proceeds to the analysis of these polemical developments. Noah’s Sacrifices Genesis 8:20 depicts Noah’s animal sacrifice after his disembarkation. It may be the first account of an animal sacrifice on an altar found in the Bible. Although Abel’s animal offerings are mentioned in Gen 4:4, these sacrifices did not establish any significant sacrificial pattern for future generations.10 Until Noah, the Bible does not attest to any ongoing tradition of animal sacrifices. When Jubilees mentions the offerings of Adam and Enoch, it refers to them as incense sacrifices.11 Noah can thus be regarded as the originator of the official ongoing tradition of animal sacrifices. He is also the first person to have received from the Lord the commandment about blood. As Michael Stone observes, Noah’s connection to the sacrificial cult and to instructions concerning blood was not accidental.12 In 2 Enoch, however, the role of Noah as a pioneer of animal sacrificial practice is challenged by a different story. In this text one learns that immediately after Enoch’s instructions to his sons during his short visit to the earth and his ascension to the highest heaven, the firstborn son of Enoch, Methuselah, and his brothers, the sons of Enoch, constructed an altar ————— 8 Kvanvig, Roots of Apocalyptic, 117. 9 Michael Stone notes that “an extensive development of Noachic traditions is to be observed in 2 Enoch 71–72 which rewrites the story of Noah’s birth, transferring the special traditions to Melkisedek.” Stone, “The Axis of History at Qumran,” 139. 10 Stone, “The Axis of History at Qumran,” 138. 11 “On that day, as he was leaving the Garden of Eden, he burned incense as a pleasing fragrance – frankincense, galbanum, stacte, and aromatic spices....” Jub 3:27; “He burned the evening incense of the sanctuary which is acceptable before the Lord on the mountain of incense.” Jub 4:25. VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees, 2.20 and 2.28. 12 Stone, “The Axis of History at Qumran,” 138. Noachic Polemics 307 at Ahuzan,13 the place from which Enoch had been taken up. In 2 Enoch, Chapter 69, the Lord appeared to Methuselah in a night vision and appointed him the priest before the people. Verses 11-18 of this chapter describe the first animal sacrifice of Methuselah on the altar. The text says that the people brought sheep, oxen, and birds (all of which have been inspected) for Methuselah to sacrifice before the face of the Lord.14 Further, the text gives an elaborate description of the sacrificial ritual during which Methuselah slaughters with a knife, “in the required manner,” sheep and oxen placed at the head of the altar.15 It is apparent that Methuselah’s role in animal sacrificial practice conflicts with the canonical role of Noah as the originator of the animal sacrificial tradition.
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